Donato Hanover, who is scheduled to qualify this Friday, has been valued at more than $10 million with all 120 of his shares now sold for $85,000 according to co-owner David Scharf of New York.
Each of the shares entitles the buyer to one breeding per year when Donato retires to the stallion barn at the farm which bred and raised him, Hanover Shoe Farms, at the end of this season. His stud fee has been announced as $20,000.
A son of Andover Hall, Donato has won all of his 11 starts this year as a three-year-old for $2.2 million in earnings. His only lifetime loss came in his first start last year at two giving him a career summary of 19-0-1 in 20 starts for $2,978,608.
The winner of two million dollar races this year, the Hambletonian and Canadian Trotting Classic, Donato’s last race was in the Kentucky Futurity, which he won in straight heats, in early October.
Scharf noted that the game plan is to qualify the colt at Gaitway Farm on Friday to prep for the upcoming Breeders Crown at the Meadowlands which will likely be his final start.
Scharf and Steve Jones of Cameo Hill Farms (featured as the cover story in our September issue) purchased Donato’s baby sister yesterday at the Harrisburg sale. D Liteful Hanover, by Revenue S, will join her big brother (albeit briefly) in Steve Elliott’s stable.
